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Broken English

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Everything posted by Broken English

  1. A few of my favourites... Looking a bit suspicious and sniffing the end of an ISI you just used before asking an apprentice "does this smell off to you?", and as they sniff you give it a little burst, sending a good dose of nitrous into their nostril as well as spattering them a little. We used to make a 'meringue' from salt and egg white that we sat oysters on. You can imagine the rest. It quickly became a running gag with new staff. I was making chicken liver pate one day, and a waitress (a vegetarian) came over very excited with a big spoon, asking to try my chocolate mousse. The squeal was ear piercing, and to this day I can't work out how she didn't smell it.
  2. I don't get the American pronounciation of parmesan, or parmigiano as "parma-john". Either say it in English, or say it in Italian, don't bastardise two languages. Also, pizza and pie are two very different things, they are not interchangeable.
  3. Oh cool - are you going to be there in April? We'll probably be heading to WD-50 (been before and loved it!) I'll be at the restaurant from late March to late April. I have to leave my wallet locked in a cupboard until then, I'm going to be so broke, but I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, so it's worth it in the end. I had a really good meal there in August, and I love the vibe of the place. I just need to find somewhere cheap to live for a month. Anywa, back to Per Se, I hope against hope not only that they have a table for me, but that I'll be able to afford it haha.
  4. I'll be trying for a reservation soon, so let us know how easy it is. I've landed a month long stage at WD-50 so I'll be definately looking to head to Per Se while I'm in the city. (Kind of off topic, but I'm quite excited, so I wanted to bring it up somehow )
  5. Any sort of braise with rice or mash would work well in bulk, say a lamb shoulder (or four). It's done in advance, and easy to reheat and serve in large quantities. Tempura anything for a lot of people will be a tough ask unless you pre-fry in advance and flash back in the oil before serving. Pasta could also be a good choice. Just remember to keep it simple. Good luck.
  6. My meal at L'Atelier London in July 2010 was amazing, my meal at the Las Vegas counterpart in August last year, not so much. The portions were smaller, the prices more expensive, and the menu less interesting. I still think of the London meal as one of the top ten best fine dining meals of my life so far.
  7. You should be okay with gnocchi, I've made it with Desiree's a lot of times with good results.
  8. Marco appears on TV ads for Knorr stock - not sure he's much of an authority on the subject! Well yeah, but stock powders have their uses. Still, you'd think a three star chef who was obsessed with perfection could tell the difference. I enjoyed tonights episode though, the cheese sauce recipe is definitely one I'll be adding to my repertoire.
  9. That's pretty much exactly what the meat guy did (I work fish), but it took on an odd, almost tainted taste. I wondered if it had to do with the wet aging process that cryovacced meat undergoes. My name is James, by the way I probably should put that in my signature haha.
  10. What I don't get is why Marco Pierre White insists there is no difference between conventional and pressure cooked stocks. I'm really enjoying this series, it's quite a good spin on those traditional home cooking shows, even if it does diverge into the obscure every now and again.
  11. Those steaks look amazing. On a related note, we've just tried dry aging a sirloin at work for 45 days, and it's been a bit of a failure. The fat has taken on a great flavour, but the meat inside has a somewhat tainted taste, what could have gone wrong?
  12. I was taught that they (along with the flowers) are bitter, and will ruin something like pesto, though I don't know if the reason the pesto is ruined is because of the texture, not the flavour (or if it's just an old wive's tale). I've never really given it any thought other than that. Have a chew on one, if they're not bitter, I'd make basil oil with them (seeing as the solids are strained off, the texture is not an issue).
  13. I love the restaurant, I've been three or four times and haven't had a bad moment there. From what I hear, the book is basically the story of the last few years, so it's likely that they'll be in there. Please keep me in the loop when you do get it, and tell me if it's worth the $150 with shipping (plus the shipping back home when my overseas escapade ends ... and I already have Modernist Cuisine to send home somehow ) Try Amazon UK, they have copies. Thanks, that seems a lot better deal. On the Marque webstore it says the book is $80, and international shipping is $60.
  14. Why not Coriander/Cilantro? It works well with the curry flavours, and I really like the combination with apple.
  15. I love the restaurant, I've been three or four times and haven't had a bad moment there. From what I hear, the book is basically the story of the last few years, so it's likely that they'll be in there. Please keep me in the loop when you do get it, and tell me if it's worth the $150 with shipping (plus the shipping back home when my overseas escapade ends ... and I already have Modernist Cuisine to send home somehow )
  16. Do the leaves have to be whole? I imagine there would be a lot of merit in chiffonading the brussels and then sauteeing them, which would look good as a garnish.
  17. What's the Marque cookbook like? I'm desperate to get my hands o it but it's not released here until October. I think I may well have to order it from back home and pay the exorbitant shipping.
  18. A fellow cook in the kitchen was asking me about whether she should get Modernist or two El Bulli books. Because I own Modernist, I was advising her to buy the El Bulli books in the hope we could swap each other. Alas, she got Modernist Cuisine and loves it and I, as a result, will now have to fork out for those El Bulli volumes I've wanted for so long.
  19. I love chicken liver pate, the recipe I use is about as close to foie gras as I can get without using it. I find duck is a little too strong for my recipe, it takes on too much of a strong liver flavour. 2kg chicken livers, soaked overnight in milk and cleaned 12 shallots 8 cloves of garlic, sliced 300ml port 100ml cream 1 sprig rosemary 5 sprigs thyme 750g butter 6 egg yolks Confit the eschallots and garlic in butter slowly until caramelised. Pour into a bowl. In the same pan, fry off the livers briefly and add to the eschallots. Deglaze with the port and reduce, Add the cream and herbs and reduce. Strain. Puree the livers with butter, egg yolks and port reduction, season to taste, pass and set.
  20. Amazing thread so far, thanks for all the photos and commentary reminding me of my homeland. I'm really envious of the Kangaroo dish, all the cooks at work have been asking me to get some 'Roo for them to taste, and I haven't had much luck so far. The one place I've found that will order it for me said that they'll sell it to me for $60/pound. Back at home, I can buy four whole kangaroos for that.
  21. The chinese truffles are a different variety. The canned truffles from China labeled 'Product of France' in the video were Tuber indicum, not the Perigord variety Tuber melanosporum. The sorters were able to pick them out, so there must be some obvious difference, at least to the pros. That makes much more sense, which begs the question, if the Australian farmers can cultivate decent varieties, why don't the Chinese? Labour is the same, the process must be the same, so why settle for a shitty variety?
  22. Exactly right. Thank you. You're misinterpreting my point. I was speaking from the point of view of my palate, and how that if I salt to my taste every time, I will have 25% of people finding the dish too salty and not enjoying it/sending it back. Thus, I have to salt to what I percieve as "it could cope with a little more" and then send it. I don't mean cooks deliberately sending out dishes way underseasoned with the rationale of "they can salt it themselves". As others have pointed out, every dish needs salt at the start of and during the cooking process to bring the best flavours out of it. As far as finishing seasoning goes, that's where the balance can be lost.
  23. If you're asking on an internet forum about safety tips for foraging mushrooms you are in the wrong business. You could kill yourself and lots of other people if you don't REALLY know what you're doing. I hope I'm misreading what you're asking. This. Please don't end up like these poor guys ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/poisonous-mushrooms-death_n_1188202.html
  24. I find that with my palate, I need to salt food to what I percieve as slightly bland in order to season to the 'correct' level as determined by my chef. I can live with that, as I'm well aware that I love salt. My mother has haemochromatosis, and she has salt cravings to the point where her food is often quite salty, so I guess that's the origin of my palate. I think the oversalting problem is more along the lines of Jmahl's post, in which neither the line cooks or the chef actually tastes the food, so the end product is usually oversalted. I think it's better to underseason and have salt on the table, rather than to rely on customers having palates reflecting the cooks, especially seeing as salt tolerance tends to vary highly especially with age.
  25. The texture of that bread 'failure' looks a lot better than the gluten free breads I've seen, the texture has always been crumbly and 'cakey'. How was it? As for the top, if you hadn't tried to slash it I think it would have looked nicely rustic. I'd give it another go. Also, if it's collapsing, then it's a sign it hasn't been cooked long enough. I was taught to push it as far as possible without burning it to avoid the collapse. It has to do with ensuring the crust is firm enough to hold the shape as it cools. From the colour of the bread in your photo versus the cookbook picturre, the bread could have been pushed a little further. Hope that helps.
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